Talk:LGBTQ+ Keeper/@comment-37611621-20190206020623
INCLUDES SPOILERS. CREDIT TO DISCORD FRIENDS. WIP. Elves currently match themselves with someone who will guarantee the best genetic compatibility (so that they aren’t marrying their relatives), since the elvin population is so small. Their numbers are even smaller because elves believe that their firstborn is the one who sort of “absorbs all the good genetic stuff”, and to have children after that isn’t always common, and possibly even discouraged. So the elvin population is small. And it also means that if elves are LGBTQ+, they can’t be together without the same or even worse scorn that a bad match renders since they can’t produce offspring at ALL, not even just “genetically incompatible” offspring. But what if the answer is with humans? In the human race, there is no stigma for having multiple children (not genetically, anyway). In the human world, the idea of LGBTQ+ is still being introduced, but we’ve never actually heard of it in the Keeper of the Lost Cities book series. There are elves in the Keeper series who are against the involvement of humans in elvin culture (wanting to keep themselves hidden from humans, etc.) and there are others who believe humans should be subservient to the elvin race (held accountable for destroying the world, believed to be causing the decline of the world, etc.). However, the series hints at the Black Swan believing that there could be a benefit to respecting and interacting with humans, to see how well elves could work side-by-side with humans. This upcoming Keeper book, according to Shannon Messenger, will be called Legacy. However, there are a few rejected titles she made known to the public that hint about what sorts of topics will be talked about in the book. One such title was “Inception”, and fans who had read the previous books in the series knew that this was hinting at Sophie’s parentage. She is biologically an elf but was carried to term and birthed by a human woman (not to mention her adoptive parents, but I digress). We know who her human mother is (and her human father, who perhaps has as much claim to her as Grady and Edaline Reuwen do—nothing bodily or genetically was involved in his parentage of her), but we do not know the identities of the elves who contributed their DNA to create Sophie’s genetic makeup. This is the alleged information in which Sophie will become interested in Legacy, and theories abound. One of the most interesting theories, however, is that her elvin parents might be entirely unexpected. Do elves, when implanting an embryo into a human, need to adhere by human genetic rules? Or is it possible that Sophie has two parents of the same sex? This question raises many theories, one of which being: could Mr. Forkle, the creator of Sophie Foster, be one of the LGBTQ+ community? And could Mr. Forkle have more secrets than just a twin and many identities? What if at least one of the Forkles was genderfluid? That could open up the possibility for many other identities, meaning that the Black Swan could be fighting more than we think. So many questions raised by this theory of Sophie’s creation and Mr. Forkle’s identities. The Black Swan is fighting prejudice, but could that prejudice also include homophobia, transphobia, and others? If at least one of the Forkles was genderfluid, then could the other be gay? This could prove that Sophie was not only an experiment regarding humans but also an experiment regarding tests of if LGBTQ+ could be possible in the elvin world. Anyway, they’re elves! Didn’t they invent the leapmaster? Elixirs? Transgender, genderfluid and those regarding gender are easily fixed in the elvin world. They can drink elixirs to make the world right for them. But… what about those regarding sexuality? Can’t elves fix that, too? Sophie’s genetic parentage ties in closely with the title Legacy...regardless of which specific people contributed their DNA to create her genetic makeup, what implications could the sort of elves who contributed to Sophie’s creation have? If Sophie is indeed a product of an LGBTQ+ union (two elves of the same sex), does this tie humans into the elvin world, in a way? Could this be a way that humans and elves coexist and help one another—humans benefiting from all of elvin technology and advancements, and elves benefitting from humans’ ability not to interfere in the genetic superiority of offspring? Could this also be freedom, of sorts, for LGBTQ+ elves, to live the lives they want to live? Could LGBTQ+ elves feel the freedom to contribute to the LEGACY of the elven race, knowing that they could live the life they want to live and also contribute to posterity? Could it also cement, once and for all, that the Neverseen’s vision of warring between all the species to become the dominant race would ultimately harm the elves, along with humans?